‘When you look down the Zarqa River at Janna’a Park it is hard to imagine that 30 years ago this area was green and fertile’, said Eng.Mohammad Al Zawahra from Zarqa Municipality. ‘People would swim in clear water pools, fish, swam in the river, and we had flowing water throughout the year’. …

THE LATEST: Solid progress has been made at COP 15 towards recognizing forests as a fundamental part of climate change mitigation solutions. REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) and REDD-plus are a critical part of a successful mitigation strategy. …

On 15 December, IUCN’s Asia Regional Environmental Law and Water and Wetlands Programmes held a joint workshop to work with partners to brainstorm the fundamentals of a transboundary water governance assessment framework. The workshop was sponsored by the Mekong Regional Water Dialogues project, funded by the Government of Finland. …

THE LATEST: There remains considerable disagreement on key issues related to finance, reporting on progress on adaptation, and even on what the final adaptation agreement will be called - between a “framework” and a “programme”. Coming in to Copenhagen, adaptation was seen as one of the areas where real progress could be made, but the emerging reality is that the negotiations on adaptation will need to go on well into 2010 - delays which only add to the urgency of coming to an agreement. …

Penan Peace Park" is aimed at protecting the last primeval rainforests of Sarawak´s Upper Baram region and is challenging the official logging plans – the Penan wish to develop tourism and to protect their native rights. …

The 2nd Regional National Working Group (RNWG) meeting of the Mekong Region Water Dialogues (MRWD), programme of IUCN's Asia office was organized in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam from November 30th to December 1st, 2009. …

Drought, floods, storms, melting glaciers and sea-level rise all feature in headlines and fears about the expected impacts of climate change. All concern water. Living with climate change will mean coping with impacts on water. …